1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to smoke alarms and smoke alarm systems, and more particularly relates to adapters for smoke alarms, fire alarms, carbon monoxide alarms, and systems incorporating these and other types of alarms.
2. Related Art
Many smoke alarm manufacturers provide an entire smoke alarm system for residential and commercial applications. A smoke alarm system typically includes multiple smoke alarms hard wired together with an interconnect wiring network that provides power to the alarms and may also connect the smoke alarms to a common control center. By providing a system of this type, the manufacturer can provide their own unique connector designs for connecting various components of the system together, such as connecting the smoke alarms to the interconnect wire network. One advantage for a manufacture who has installed this type of unique design for a consumer is that the consumer will have to go back to the same manufacturer to get new or updated alarms and other system components that connect to the consumer's system. A consumer's only other option is to incur the risk or added expense of removing and replacing these manufacture specific connectors with that of another manufacture. This may leave the consumer at a disadvantage because they have little to no option of using smoke alarms or other system components made by other manufactures that may be available at lower costs or provide certain features that are advantageous for the consumer's application.